And now mine~thank you for introducing us to it. Liatris sp. are a fine hurrah toward the end of the season. This is a good year for them at Illinois Beach. There we have L. spicata and cylindrica blooming. Sometimes people here call them gayfeather too, but now I see yours I think it is the real gayfeather. So pretty!

If you’re going to have a song running around in your head, this is a great one.

Glad to hear you’re having a good Liatris year at Illinois Beach. Not every flowering stalk of Liatris mucronata looks as pretty as this one in today’s picture. They vary a good deal, so naturally I seek out the prettiest ones I can find. Getting in close to neutralize the background and let the flowers be the stars of the picture also helps.

Some 22 species (plus varieties) of Liatris are native in the United States, so I suspect there is at least one in your part of Oregon. People at local native plant nurseries would know, and they might be able to tell you about gopher resistance as well.

This picture is from September 4, but I saw a few flowering Liatris spikes yesterday morning. In fact just before seeing your comment I was thinking I should go back to a good-sized colony that was beginning to flower a few weeks ago to see how it has come along.

I saw these scattered about through the magnificant fields of Gaillardia I found in July. They weren’t yet blooming, of course, but there was no mistaking them. I’ve seen them developing, and I’ve seen them well past their prime, but I’ve never seen them blooming. This is a lack that needs to be remedied. I’m off to Kerrville this weekend, and I think it would be worth adding two or three hours to the trip to stay off I-l0 and explore the countryside.

There are various species of Liatris in Texas, so if the ones you’ve been observing (sans flowers) are near you, they may well be Liatris punctata. I just found out that Liatris mucronata has at times been classified as Liatris punctata var. mucronata. By whatever name, the flowers are great and you deserve to see some soon.

Still surprises me that these are such relatively tough plants. We had tons of them in the cool and sometimes soggy backyard in Tacoma, and yet they’re hardy enough to hang out in Texas, too. Not what I’d guess from just looking at their delicate stars.

Remember, too, that there are many species of Liatris, so the ones that grow here presumably do better at withstanding heat and drought, while the ones in the Northwest presumably tolerate damp soil and lowered sunlight. If each were transplanted to the other’s realm, the result might well be double death.

Although I’m the one who brought up the way a species is adapted to local conditions, I’ve sometimes been surprised to find that a species that grows down here also grows natively in Canada or some place with frigid temperatures in the United States. The common sunflower is probably the most familiar example. Some species are clearly more adaptable than others.